Obesity makes the body tired

(University of California-Los Angeles - University of California at Los Angeles) A ​​new psychology study has shown evidence of obesity that makes people tired and less active. dynamic.

Scientists led by Aaron Blaisdell of UCLA gave 32 mice a diet in one of two six-month diets. The first diet is a normal diet of mice, including unprocessed foods such as corn and fishmeal. The ingredients in the second diet are carefully processed, lower in quality and contain significantly more sugar - typical of a snacking diet.

After only 3 months, the researchers observed a significant difference in the weight gain of mice, of which 16 mice ate significantly more fatty diets.

'A diet that leads to obesity, the rest of the diet is not, ' says Blaisdell, a psychology professor at UCLA College of Letters and Science and a member of UCLA's Brain Research Institute. know.

Researchers also said that through experiments, fatigue is also a consequence of a snacking diet.

In the study, the mice were tasked with pressing a lever to receive food or water as a reward. Mice with a very poor performance, taking much more time to take a break than the skinny mice before returning to the task. In a 30-minute session, obese mice took too much breaks and lasted nearly twice as long as skinny mice.

This study is currently presented online and scheduled to be published in the journal Physiology and Behavior in the issue on April 10, 2014.

Photo: bethwarrennutrition.com

After 6 months, the rat diets were stopped, and obese mice were given more nutritious diets within 9 days. However, this change did not help reduce their weight or change reactions to their leverage.

The reverse is also true: Placing mice in a diet for 9 days does not significantly increase their weight or lead to a decline in motivation for leveraging tasks. These findings suggest a model of eating snacks, not just occasional binge drinking, responsible for obesity and cognitive decline, Blaisdell said.

'There is no quick fix , ' he said.

What are the implications for humans? Are obese people becoming less healthy or less healthy people becoming obese?

'Obese people often suffer from stigma like they are lazy or lack of discipline , ' Blaisdell said. 'We explain our studies that the often-described opinions in the media that people are fat because they are lazy are wrong. Our data suggests that diet is a cause of obesity , rather than an effect of laziness. Either a diet of many processed foods causes fatigue or a diet that causes obesity, and obesity causes fatigue. "

"Blaisdell believes that the results of this study are very likely to apply to humans, humans have the same physiological system as rats. Snacks make people - and mice - more hungry." he said.

In addition, at the end of the study, the researchers also found that mice with a snack diet developed a large number of tumors throughout their bodies.

Blaisdell changed his diet more than 5 years ago to eat 'things that the ancestors of humanity had eaten' . He avoids eating all processed foods like bread, pasta, cereals and sugary foods. Instead, he ate meat, seafood, eggs, vegetables and fruits, and he found his health improved significantly, both physically and mentally.

'I noticed a big change in my perception,' he said. "I feel energetic throughout the day, and my thoughts are much clearer and more focused."

Mr. Blaisdell is an animal awareness specialist. He conducted research to clarify the relationship between health and lifestyle (diet and exercise) and the relationship between disparate food diets (snacks) and cognitive impairment. which this diet can cause.

'We live in an environment with a sedentary lifestyle, a poor quality diet and high-quality processed foods that are very different from what our bodies are adapted through progress. the humanization, ' Blaisdell said. 'That's the difference that leads to many chronic diseases we see today, such as obesity and diabetes'.

Co-authors of the study include: Yan Lam Matthew, Ekatherina Telminova and Boyang Fan, graduates of UCLA's Blaisdell lab, Hwee Cheei Lim, Blaisdell's laboratory manager; Dennis Garlick, a postdoctoral scholar in this lab and David Pendergrass, a biology professor at Kansas University.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and by entrepreneur Cameron Smith.